Thursday, June 12, 2003
Woah.
This is a new blogger. Apparently, the changes which they claimed would occur have occurred. I only hope that this doesn't screw up my blog as you see it. I must say, what I'm looking at right now, posting, is rather different. But hopefully you folks won't see any difference.
Except, of course, in the archives. I sure as heck hope they fix my archives. Probably not, but one can dream, non?
Went into Cambridge today with Maddie and Corey. It was good times. It felt sort of good to get up and go somewhere, rather than sitting around all day. Don't get me wrong. I adore sitting around all day. There are many days when that's all that I ever need to do. But it's nice, every so often, to get up and get going.
On the T over, we encountered a field trip. At the Aquarium stop, about 10 million children got on. They were shrieking and shoving and there were so many of them that the conductor had to do one of those "Please move all the way into the train so that everyone can board" sort of announcements. The noise level of the T car was intense. Then they all got off at the next stop, leaving everyone else with ringing ears and shell-shocked brains.
Anywho. We had fun. We had Finagle A Bagel for lunch, which was unexpectedly sketchy. There's a whole downstairs section indicated by a giant flashing neon arrow that looks entirely out of place in a Finagle A Bagel store. The downstairs is much larger than it has to be, and even though it's all done in bright yellow and purple, it still has a sort of dark, creepy quality to it. They serve alcohol down there. And hot dogs. And there was a small table with small chairs for, presumably, small children. But this table was underneath the stair case. I don't know, it was like the entire place was slightly... off.
Then we went to Newbury Comics and I got new CDs! I got Green Blade Rising by The Levellers, Haunted by Poe, The Very Best of Elvis Costello, and Pretzel Logic by Steely Dan. I'm listening to Pretzel Logic right now. I can see by what you carry that you come from Barrytown. Classic songs. And o so very wonderously good.
The Levellers is also good stuff... I research all these CDs before I buy them, so don't wonder that I always like them when I get them. I wouldn't get them if I wasn't pretty damn sure I would like them in their entirety. Anyways. The Levellers are... well, I'm pretty sure they're British, but their music have a very Irish sound to it. It sort of reminds me of a combination of the Dropkick Murphys, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and maybe Spoon. They're definitely not as hard as the Murphys. It's good stuff, I enjoy it.
Poe is also pretty good. I had heard her song Hey Pretty on the radio before (if you listen to FNX or BCN I'll bet you have too... they used to play it some and once you heard it you'd recognize it right off... it's rather memorable). She sometimes sounds like Natalie Merchant, sometimes like Dido, sometimes a good bit like Garbage, and sometimes (to my untrained ear) a little bit like Bjork. Sometimes like something else entirely. The only thing I don't like is that this CD is sort of weirdly tied into this book called House of Leaves, which was written by her brother, and having not read the book, I miss out on some of the nuances of the CD. As McWatt would say, Oh well, what the hell.
The Elvis Costello CD (double CD, actually) is just great because it's got practically every song of his that's any good on it. All his classic songs. Thank you, Corey, for the tip on that one. My dad saw that I got it and he got all excited. Ha. I like a singer that my parents like. I am a dork.
Two, actually. I like Steely Dan. My parents have all the Steely Dan albums. How old school is that, eh? And now I'm buying the CDs. What goes around comes around.
Yup. So we were in Newbury Comics and I blew a major wad of cash (even if it was in gift certificate form) and felt silly for spending so much money. Then we went to the Harvard COOP and I got a book, thereby blowing more cash. I never spend money, so this was sort of crazed for me. Then again, when people are hanging out and they go shopping, it's usually clothes shopping, which means that there's zero temptation for me to buy anything. It's this CD and bookstore shopping that's dangerous for me and my wallet.
We got blessedly caffeinated beverages at Starbucks, and then we sat in there for quite some time and chatted. There was a wonderful girl sitting at the bar thing with us, lying on the countertop and writing frantically in a notebook. Later we were conjecturing as to what she was writing about. She may well have been writing down our conversations. Cat knows we were talking loudly enough, and our conversations were insane enough to attract anyone's attention. Our conversations ranged over such topics as Which type of cracker is best for spreading paste made of souls? and The physical qualities of kiwis, manatees and pterodactyls; and Star Trek fraternities; and How to set up a schedule for doing art over the summer; and Parking Attendant 4-Eva tshirts; and other such things.
Heck, if I was sitting in a Starbucks with a sketchbook and I heard such things, I'd probably write them down. Anywho, Corey wanted to one-up her, so he drew her lying on the counter writing. Just in case she was writing about us. It was highly amusing. I have discovered that, with the right combination of people, you can sit in Starbucks indefinitely.
can you say 'product placement'? and i don't even get paid for it...
Then I came home and worked on the immense scrapbook thing which I am making. It has pictures in it from 1998 to 2003. I've been collecting them forever. Then, because it looked sort of bland, I decided to add a little interest to it by putting in all the doodles I did in school junior and senior years. I already had them cut out and saved, so I'm just sticking them on the pages. It still looks pretty plain, but I think I'm going to keep it that way. I don't think I want it all hucked up.
Then I went and drove around with Jess and Liz. That's another thing you need the right crowd for. I mean, I can sit in a car with Jess and Liz, just driving around and talking, indefinitely. But I most assuredly cannot do this with all people. You need the right people. But I digress.
We were hungry. So we went to Store 24. Liz got a pint of Everything But The ice cream, which is Ben and Jerry's, and has all different sorts of ice cream mixed in with practically every kind of candy you can imagine. And Liz ate it. All. Pretty much. I think Jess had a few bites, but it was mostly Liz. Not only did she eat a pint of ice cream, we also stopped at Wendy's and she got fries. I was impressed.
Then we drove on the single most terrifying road in Marblehead to drive on at night. It's all unpaved and forested and it seems like there are creepy people hiding in the trees just beyond your line of vision waiting to jump your car. The MediMobile was sort of flying over the ruts in the road, and I imagine that it was not much good for the suspension.
Er. Yup. We also had much good conversation, although it was interspersed with The Return of Liz the Metronome, which sort of disrupted things. Also, Jess kept on making us listen to Magic, which must be the most heinous non-rap radio station on the Northshore. I suffers, I does.
Listening to Poe now. This stuff grows on you damn quickly. More well-adapted than fungus, I would say. More effective at growing on you than haustoria.
Yop. S'all for the nonce.
1:23 AM
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